Monday, 3 June 2013

The Good the Lead and the Ugly

At the club yesterday I managed to play two games of "Dead mans Hand" by Great Escape Games. Before I go into any details though I should say that I did find the rules for horses in the rulebook. So that's one hole filled.

The first game (I was referee as I had read the rules and Tim played "the Stranger" and Patrick and Peter played the town toughs.) all the figures and terrain was supplied by Tim so I can't take any credit for anything on the table, it's all thanks to Tim). If you have seen the film "A Fist full of Dollars" this scenario (in the rulebook) is where the name with no name enters the town and the three drunken toughs decide to have some "sport" with him. In the film Clint Eastwood did not have dice to contend with and kills the town toughs in about 2 seconds flat. Tim is not Clint Eastwood however and this is what happened in our introductory scenario.

Tim AKA "Snake-eyes" due to his uncanny ability to roll low, managed to wing one of the three but only very slightly. The bad guys had there turn and Pats 2 figures moved one to the left and one right. While Peter managed to play a card and grabbed a nearby hostage to hide behind. Tim took cover behind the cart and took a couple of pot shots at the Again it had some effect but was not exactly as impressive as Clint would have been. Peter and Pat kept firing at Tims figure and Patrick was out of ammo on the first shot. It's funny how often it happens in skirmish games on the first firing opportunity. Despite the skill level of Tim's character he was not able to make any killing shots and eventually the three toughs snuck a lucky shot past the cart (a natural 20) and The game ended.

The game took a while despite there only being 4 figures as we were all learning the rules. Quite a few cards were played by the baddies but overall it went as planned and we had four players who realised they understood the rules. One of the reasons for the length of time was that every card had to be read as it was a very new system and questions needed to be asked and rules explained. But overall it went well. SO I joined in the next game.

For the next game we played a straight points match (21 points between 2 players). "1 Points is what the rules suggest and usually makes about 7-9 figures a side. As it happened we both had 8 figures. Tim and Pat played the lawmen while Peter and myself played the outlaws. We started too far apart. All the outlaws were pistol armed so had a maximum range of 12". Patrick had a couple of guys with shotguns (very nasty) but with only an 8" range. So we had a few turns of manoeuvring and getting into position. This highlighted a flaw in the initiative system. In a deck of cards and including the Jokers there are only 14 different card values. (1-10, J, Q, K, and Joker) and with 8 figures quite often the two sides numbers equated. The system was just not as elegant as it read in the rules when played on the table top. It still worked it was just a case of dice rolling occasionally to get the turn sequence correct. My tactics were to close the ground as quickly as possible so I sent all my figures straight up the main street. Peter skirted to the right which resulted in my left flank being empty. Tim decide to take advantage of this open flank, which was my plan as it would mean him splitting his force and allowing me to bring all my guns to bear on a smaller number of lawmen.

The centre of the street got quite crowded quite quickly. As there is a closest target rule I deliberately had one of my weaker figures in front. We ignored the closest target rule as the game went on but it worked for a while as he did become a bullet magnet for the outlaws. Still he lasted a couple of turns up front, until Patrick started shotgun charge tactics. these tactics involved running up to within 4" and firing both barrels. At 0-4" a shot gun get +6 to hit if using both barrels and the rules say you can't aim a shotgun. Given that your first move action does not give you a to hit penalty and your second only a -1. Pat quickly realised that this tactic gave the best chance of putting someone out of the game. Ok It left them unloaded but as it only takes 1 of your 3 actions in a turn it really was not such a disaster.

Peter on the right was also faced with shotguns and seeing how deadly they could be decided to put his leader into HTH. Now just like "Snake-eyes" Peter can roll low when the occasion suits. As Peter charged into combat he received a +1 on d10 to determine the result. Both players rolled their dice Patrick rolled a 2 and Peter rolled the inevitable 1. It was a tie so no combat result. In the next turn they both rolled the same dice and again on the turn after that. On the final turn of the game Peter managed to roll 1 higher than Pat so inflicted a single underfire marker. If the dice rolls had been different the results really could have changed the game. But they just kept rolling the same number on a d10 as each other. Peter was using his other troops well though and between us we were keeping up with the casualty count the shotguns were inflicting.

The game ended with my leader out of the fight and 3 of my other figures, Peter lost 1. Tim lost his leader as he came out of an alley and tried to bushwhack one of my guys but then found himself being shot at from 3 directions. So eventually he died. Along with 3 other lawmen. Both gangs were on 1/2 strength or less (we were less) so we both had to take nerve tests. We were at +1 due to our extra casualty, but the lawman had lost there two best figures. So the Outlaws were actually in a better position. "Tim "Snake-eyes" rolled the dice and the rest of the lawmen fled the battle. While Peter rolled well and our guys stayed to have fun in the town.

Findings and conclusion: The rules are very simple and work very well. There are loads of holes in the rules and I would imagine Great Escape Games is already planning a few supplements to flesh them out. new weapons and gang types so they can make more figures and sell more set. I am perhaps being unfair in speculating this. I will say having played the rules that they do work well for a one off "fun" game between 2 people. They will work well as participation games at shows or for quick games when no one has anything else planned. They will need work if you want a mass club game with more than a couple of people. They will also need work if you want to have the same gang in several games IF you want to show any variation in weapons or experience. All these things can be done of course but I believe they should have been done already and to save you both the time effort and game balancing.

But for one off games they work well and give an uncomplicated game with little fuss or paperwork. No complicated rules and after 2 or three gun fights you will know all the rules. It will then depend on you to decide if it needs any more than was included in these rules.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading and more on Wednesday. All the best Clint.

Trust me the rules are simple, but still have flavour. In fact I do like them, and am not at all unhappy with them. The problem for me that is because I already have 4-5 sets of gunfight rules I can see things missing which the others have already covered.

The lawmen did have a couple of repeater carbines, but they hardly made any use of them. Theoretically they could have stayed back and fought a long range battle. But if they tried that we would have gone to ground in the alleyways between buildings. It would have had a very different feel to the game. But it could easily have gone that way.

It does sound that, despite the obvious fun you had playing, the rules could have been a whole lot better overall. There's so many gunfight rules around that unless these fill a specific hole in the market they don't really sound like they're up with the best.